The Lord of the Rings franchise is no stranger to wacky pairings at this point, but the wackiest may have happened in a video game. The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’s controversial Galadriel-Sauron romance tease started in season 1 and developed in season 2, despite never crossing the line into fulfillment of the tension between the two. Galadriel and Sauron hated each other in The Rings of Power’s source material, J.R.R. Tolkien’s 1954 novel, The Lord of the Rings. That makes Rings of Power’s romance between Galadriel and Sauron/Halbrand a divisive stretch of canon.

Canon doesn’t apply to Tolkien’s legendarium the way it applies to many other high-fantasy worlds. Tolkien created his works as a mythopoeia – a realistic set of myths full of contradictions and contradictory perspectives, varied formats, and mystery. Nonetheless, Galadriel and Sauron hated each other in every single format, perspective, and story. Additionally, Rings of Power had Elrond – Galadriel’s future son-in-law – kiss her passionately, albeit as a diversion. But the pairing in Middle-earth: Shadow of War makes these flirtations appear sensible.

Sauron & Shelob Share A Kiss In The Lord Of The Rings’ Shadow Of War Video Game

Sauron & Shelob May Be Lord Of The Rings’ Wackiest Pairing

 

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Sauron and Shelob share an intimate moment in Middle-earth: Shadow of War. This may come as a shock to those who know Shelob only as the giant spider in Tolkien’s novel and Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies. Shelob also features in Rings of Power as a giant spider. But Shelob takes a human form in Middle-earth: Shadow of War and gets involved with Sauron in his Elf form. Players are treated to or subjected to, depending on who is playing, a kiss between the two. However, Sauron and Shelob’s relationship extends far beyond this kiss in the game.

Sauron and Shelob’s full-blown relationship in Middle-earth: Shadow of War may constitute the zaniest Lord of the Rings pairing yet. Needless to say, this pairing bears no relation to any of J.R.R. Tolkien’s many writings on the world of Middle-earth. This little-known Lord of the Rings pairing is the furthest any story in the entire franchise has ever taken Sauron into a mutually agreeable romance. Sauron’s star-crossed situationship with Galadriel in Rings of Power is nothing short of disastrous, despite being bizarrely beautiful in the show’s internal logic and more than a little tragic.

Shelob Never Took Human Form In The Lord Of The Rings But Possibly Could Have

There Is A Chance Shelob Could Have Been Able To Shapeshift

Shelob’s Maiar parentage provides the faintest possibility that she may have been able to shapeshift and take a human form and that this may not have been a total invention on the part of Shadow of War. The Silmarillion confirmed Ungoliant (Shelob’s mother) could shapeshift, so she was most likely a Maia like Sauron. Shelob’s father was another primordial spider monster of unknown type and may or may not have been a Maiar. Their pregnancy would have bound them to their bodies, making them unable to shapeshift again, but the shapeshifting ability of their children is unknown.

Middle-earth: Shadow of War was released in 2017 and is an action-adventure video game published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment.

Lúthien, daughter of an Elf and a Maia, took on some of the abilities of both parents. Regardless, in the game, Sauron and Shelob’s fair forms kiss in the Unseen world, but it leaves the Seen to the imagination, scarily. Shelob is fair in the Unseen but could be anything in the Seen. The Unseen world in The Lord of the Rings is also known as the wraith-world, which is the world Frodo went to when he put on the One Ring. In this world, Frodo saw the Ringwraiths’ withered, corpse-like ghosts, although they were invisible in the Seen.

Galadriel Deserves Better, But Sauron & Shelob Are Lord Of The Rings’ Scariest Power Couple

Sauron & Shelob Deserve Each Other

Out of all the hilariously non-canonical Sauron romances shoehorned onto screens, Sauron and Shelob is the weirdest but also the most oddly appropriate. While The Rings of Power teases feelings between Galadriel and Sauron, it also portrays Elf Mirdania’s crush on Sauron while he is disguised as Annatar and Sauron’s manipulative flirting in response. Galadriel and Mirdania both deserve better than Sauron, but Sauron and Shelob deserve each other, as the gameplay goes on to prove. Sauron betrays Shelob with a kiss, paralleling Judas’ biblical betrayal of Jesus.

Sauron called Shelob his “pet cat,” but “she owns him not.” It is hard to think of this in the same way again after playing Shadow of War.

From this point onward, Shelob starts becoming a grotesque arachnid beast, possibly signifying that she is no longer able to assume a fair form after she completes this transformation. It is suggested by Shadow of War that Sauron gives Shelob up to the army that is attacking, but it isn’t entirely clear if his kiss turns her into a spider or how this helps him defeat the army. Perhaps he is trying to help her in some strange way. Either way, both members of this toxic twosome are despicable in Lord of the Rings.

Middle-earth: Shadow of War also features the Second Age Elf, Celebrimbor. Sauron called Shelob his “pet cat,” but “she owns him not.” It is hard to think of this in the same way again after playing Shadow of War. While most cats may own their humans, Sauron was too powerful for even Shelob to control. Impressively, Sauron didn’t dare control Shelob either, unlike most of the other beings in his life. Sauron never officially worked with Shelob but appreciated her guarding the Cirith Ungol pass, and sent her Orcs to torture for both of their amusement, demanding stories from onlookers. Sauron and Shelob may be The Lord of the Rings’ scariest power couple.